Eberron: Soaring Skies of Khorvaire

On the wings of adventure! (Skyship now included!)

Better late than never, again.

Because the Mirrorverse was 20-some-odd sessions with rather sporadic fighting, XP is only being awarded for the combat encounters instead of all of the little RPing quirks. This is mitigated by your huge amounts of swag and the fact that you still ding.

Stat-Enhancing Wondrous ItemsAmulet of health +2 [Claimed by Tevi]Belt of health +4 [Claimed by Blackfist]Cloak of charisma +6 [x2; Claimed by Gwynne and Reine]Cloak of charisma +4 [Claimed by Tevi]Boots of dexterity +6 [Claimed by Guns]Gauntlets of ogre power +2 [Claimed by Blackfist]Gloves of dexterity +4 [x2; Claimed by Mara and Burzam]Gloves of dexterity +2 [slotless; Claimed by Reine]Headband of intellect +4Headband of intellect +2Periapt of wisdom +4

RingsRing of featherfall [Claimed by Guns]Ring of forcewall [Claimed by Burzam]Ring of four windsRing of protection +2 [Claimed by Roach]Ring of the ram (3 charges per day, instead of 50 total) [Claimed by Roach]Ring of the sophisticate [PFSRD; Claimed by Tevi]Scholar’s ring [PFSRD; Claimed by Tevi]

Magical ConsumablesPotion of arcane sightPotion of cure serious wounds [x2] [Claimed by Burzam]Potion of fly [Claimed by Burzam]Potion of false gravityPotion of magic circle against chaosPotion of magic circle against evilPotion of magic circle against goodPotion of magic circle against lawWand of dispel magic [9/10 charges] [Claimed by Burzam]Wand of great thunderclap [9/10 charges]Wand of greater blindsight [10/10 charges] [Claimed by Burzam]Wand of mass resist energy [10/10 charges]Wand of polymorph [10/10 charges]Wand of sound lance [8/10 charges] [Claimed by Burzam]

You can see the way out of the Mirrorverse! You just need to decide how to get there.

You dive into the instruction manual to the demote detonator described to you by mirror!Burzam and mirror!Dr. Flint! And hoo-boy is it immediately evident that mirror!Burzam’s a different creature for yours. His verbosity is second to none, and once his vocabulary has pounded you into submission, it just keeps on trundling over you and running roughshod over your beleaguered reflex to reach for the dictionary. Mirror!Dr. Flint’s annotations don’t much help either, as his putting things into laymen’s terms is foiled by his utter lack of understanding of the material he’s translating.

From what you can make out of the jargon and “helpful hints fer understandin’,” the remote detonator of the Hand of Wrath is essentially a magical battery attached to an interface with which to connect to Dulum: Once connected, a confirmation signal is activated – via a big red button — that initiates the Hand of Wrath’s self-destruct protocols. As part of those protocols, the Moonbreaker cycles through a firing cycle aimed at the source of the confirmation signal, whose coordinates are uploaded at the time of the confirmation of the self-destruct’s initiation.

The schematics contain detailed descriptions of dozens of components, though most of these mirror!Burzam is confident House Cannith can produce in a timely manner, and your own Burzam grumbles he could do himself with a tenth of the budget his mirrorverse counterpart is quoting. The one stumbling block appears to be the battery to power the remote detonator. Per mirror!Dr. Flint’s commentary, as a supplemental security measure to ensure that Dulum was only destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion by her own, the Hand of Wrath requires a massive infusion of magic in order to “kick-start” it when utilized via the remote detonator. Mirror!Burzam is confident that an eldritch engine could be built to spec and transported to the appropriate site in approximately three-months, though he admits that time could be of the essence. The notes make the grizzly observation that it was expected, in the event of Dulum becoming compromised, that a disciple of Nonnagron – like Delthan — was expected to escape, construct a remote detonator, and sacrifice himself to fuel the activation.

Without constructing an eldritch engine from scratch, the notes give sizable shrift to improvising a power source out of a magical item of sufficient potency. Mirror!Burzam, while surrounded by such artifacts, neglected to send any along, though he is confident that the Argentum must surely have something that will do the trick, as they’re in the business of collecting such things. Though artifacts of such power might also be expropriated from other sources: For instance, somewhere within what was once the volcanic caldera that was once known as the Lake of Fire, now the headquarters of the Burning Legion, is something of monumental power which draws Fernia into an unnatural and permanently coterminous orbit.

In their discussion about the Lake of Fire, there is also a tangent of mirror!Burzam’s based upon records dug out of some archive whose name hurts to pronounce. Remembering the Nightmare War, the giants of Dulum had considered the possibility of another invasion by an extraplanar army while another plane was coterminous with Eberron. Included within the schematics supplied is what mirror!Burzam calls a “targeting module”, a device that allows for the activator of the Hand of Wrath to select which plane(s) of existence the Moonbreaker uses to do its dirty work. As the device requires a specially forged component attuned to each plane of existence to be used, Mirror!Burzam speculates that by plugging in the elemental residuum of a sufficiently powerful denizen of Fernia, it would be possible to ablate its becoming coterminous and even – potentially – throw it off its original orbit and send it hurtling off into planar the abyss. A thought also occurs for your purposes: As the Moonbreaker is the method for returning home, plugging in The Key for the component attuned to the Prime Material Plane should work to send you home when the Moonbreaker targets you, making being blown up after activating the remote detonator a feature, not a bug.

All of this talk of powerful artifacts also gets Talagos’mahrin’s ready to blow up a city full of mindhacked dragons, crazy elves, and the long-dead ghost-empress of giantkind! He apparently totally knows a guy who can hook the party up with the power source and attuned extraplanar components they need! There’s just one slight problem: Said guy is in Argonnessen. Which means he’s probably not so much a “guy” as a “male dragon”. Said guy is also Talagos’mahrin’s father-in-law. Which surely won’t be at all awkward for the World’s Most Interesting Dragon! And besides, you guys have always wanted to go to Argonnessen. This is clearly a chance to get intel on what to expect back home.

You have four paths before you, brave party, to move forward:
1) Continue to Dulum as planned and confront the evils that lay within.
2) Stay on Xen’drik and attempt to build the remote detonator using Delthan to activate the Hand of Wrath.
3) Return to Khorvaire and attempt to build the remote detonator using components extracted from House Cannith, the Argentum, Burning Legion, and/or something you come up with yourselves.
4) Venture to Argonnessen and attempt to build the remote detonator using components extracted from the Continent of Dragons.

Because you guys deserve *some* swag...

The assembled loot you pulled off the Tidelords plus some other beach scrounging, plus Destian’s duds and the loot from his guards courtesy of Eranna. Apparently she and Talagos’mahrin both thought it’d be amusing to have half-naked dwarves running around.

Better late-ish than never!

Wroat
—Choosing to Infiltrate Aundair by Dragonhawk: 50xp
—Sending the Albatross to Stormhome for Upgrading: 25xp, +All Listed Albatross Upgrades, -All Your RP
—Planning to Have the Albatross Explode from River Aundair Like the Kool-Aid Man: 25xp

The Aundairian Skies
—Arguing About the Merits of Orchestral Squeek Toys vs. Kazoos: 50xp
—Discovering Your Hitchhiker: 50xp
—Failing To Resist the Aura of Cuteness: 50xp
—Cleverly Working Within the Binds of Being Quasi-Charmed: 50xp
—Learning You Didn’t Pass Through Customs So Uneventfully: 100xp
—Partnering with the Talking Cat to Buy His Silence: 250xp, *+2^ Chaos Points, *+5^ Good Points

The Beaches of Arcanix
—Defeating the Aquaforged Tidelords: 600xp
—Defeating the Riptide Marauders: 250xp
—Defeating the Riptide Sureshots: 275xp
—Defeating the Riptide Titans: 900xp
—Saving All of the Beachgoer Mobs: 500xp, +10 Good Points
—Saving All of the Beachgoer Damsels: 100xp, +5 Good Points
—Saving 6 of the Beachgoer Beefcakes: 75xp, +2 Good Points
—Saving 1 of the Arcanix Blademarks: 25xp
—Foiling the Summoning of the General Via Blitzball: 1,000xp
—Convincing the Tidelord That Suicide Was the Only Option: 25xp
—Discovering the Origins of the Elemental Invasion: 250xpTotal: 9,800xp, +31 Good Points, +5 Law Points

Going to the beach just isn't enough! We must have a minigame arcade, too!

As a disclaimer, the name “Trader Johh’s” turns up a lot in these: It’s the restaurant attached to the Radiant Tide whose name had previous went unsaid.

Olladra’s Welcome: 99 Bottles of Ninja-Beer on the Wall…A local fraternity has sponsored a drinking contest at Trader Johh’s: Do you have the testicular fortitude to become the Beer-King of Olladra’s Welcome? (Rhetorically speaking for the ladies, of course.)Length: Hour to SessionType: SkillReward: Being crowned the Beer-King or -Queen of Olladra’s Weclome! And free food from Trader Johh’s

Olladra’s Welcome: Battle of the BardsTrader Johh’s is advertising a night filled with song and singing contest called the “battle of the bards”. Who knew bards could fight?Length: SessionType: SkillReward: Free food from Trader Johh’s and maybe getting to beat Fientia at her own game.

Olladra’s Welcome: How Do You Say “T-Shirt” in Common, Anyway?You pass by a Wall of Fame inside Trader Johh’s, dedicated to past winners of something called a “wet tunic competition”, with a vacant spot declaring it’d go to the winner of this year’s contest, to be determined during Olladra’s Welcome.
Length: Session
Type: Skill
Reward: A 5,000gp gift certificate to Alanorra & Associates’ Multiplanar Fashion Emporium for the winner; 3,000gp and 1,000gp gift certificates for the first and second runners-up. Also, a spot on Trader Johh’s Wall of Fame!

Olladra’s Welcome: Mother DearestEsravesh d’Lyrandar is simply dying to take her little girl’s friends to lunch. There is absolutely nothing ominous about this. Nothing at all.Length: Hour to SessionType: SocialReward: A day out with one of the most important women in Khorvairian commerce.

Olladra’s Welcome: Testing the Physics EngineA flier advertises an upcoming beach volleyball tournament, featuring animation of a pair of attractive co-eds playing volleyball, then blowing each other up with magic.Length: SessionType: SkillReward: A fabulous prize if you win! …or so it says.

Olladra’s Welcome: The Race for the Summer SunThe lobby of the Radiant Tide is abuzz with gossip about the upcoming qualifying heats for the big grand prix held during Olladra’s Welcome, the Race for the Summer Sun.Length: Session+Type: AdventureReward: An Eberronian grand prix? Surely something impressive if you can win.

Olladra’s Welcome: Wicked WipeoutOrganized teams of arcanists have waded into the ocean beyond the Radiant Tide and began conjuring waves. What could they possibly be for?Length: Hour to SessionType: SkillReward: At the very least that you have vanquished the horrible threat posed by arcanely summoned waves.

Because you deserve to know what the flying frell is going on in Aundair.

Opting to take Boranax up on his advice, the party sits in on a briefing intended for the muckety-mucks of the Brelish government! The relevant contents are excerpted below.

The DM reserves the right to add more fluff to this, which shall be done soonish.

History of the Current Crisis
By: Dr. Rin Amekk, Kesan ir’Hemden Professor Emeritus of Politics and Government at Queen Wroann University
“The roots of the current crisis grow from the Succession Crisis of 980. Queen Wrella I died on 3 Zarantyr of that year as her kingdom entered its darkest hour. The Thrane general offensive of the second half of 979, dubbed “The Orrery of Fate”, had succeeded beyond almost of its planners’ dreams. Operation Little Sypheros had cracked open the Kaskenny Line which held the lower River Aundair, while its follow-on Operation Big Sypheros had destabilized the entire northern front, swept away all Aundairian resistance between the River Aundair and the gates of Thaliost, and put Thrane in control of the western shores of the entry to Scion’s Sound. Operations Nymm and Eyre, aimed at cutting off Fairhaven from the rest of the nation and effectively cutting it in half, were dangerously close to their final objectives of Areksul and Lathleer, being within a day’s march of the former and at the gates of the latter. Even in the south, Operations Vult and Deuce Vult – better remembered to the rest of Khorvaire as the Sixth and Seventh Battles of Larunor – were checked, but at the cost of a 300,000 casualties could not afford with the Thranes advancing on every front.”

“It was in the midst of this strategic meltdown that the Aundairian system of government imploded. Wrella I was a resourceful and imperious woman, ruling Aundair as an assertive executive who was determined to defend existing royal prerogatives and appropriate for herself new ones which might be needed to run the state as she saw necessary. Her government ran preferred to run roughshod over the other institutions of power in Aundair, especially the Estates-General and the Arcane Congress in its exercise of temporal powers. Despite her ministry’s intragovernmental abrasiveness, she was fairly popular, even amongst those who were the victims of her government’s abuse: Her three decades of rule were widely seen as a time of rising prosperity and good, if not always civil, governance. But she made more than her fair share of enemies, who would make their strength known in the days and weeks after her death.”

“The succession crisis began in earnest on 23 Zarantyr, when the Estates-General refused to authorize the coronation of Crown Princess Dimara Sanne Aurala ir’Wynarn (regnal Aurala I). Such refusals were, despite their appearance, not uncommon in the thousand year history of Aundair: They were, traditionally, the Estates way of airing their grievances against the previous monarch and perhaps wring a concession or two out of the monarchy. What made the denial of 23 Zarantyr unparalleled was that, for the first time, the Estates were rejecting an heir apparent on the basis of the heir’s character: The Estates objected to Crown Princess Dimara’s choice of husbands, a formerly high-ranking member of House Vadalis prior to his excoriation, and the risk of ‘contaminating’ the royal bloodline with future heirs who would potentially be barred from the throne by the Korth Edicts. Such fears were merely pretextual: What was truly of concern was that Dimara was of the same mold as her mother, with reportedly even keener political instincts and skills.”

“What motivated the succession crisis was equal measures of desperation and connivance. By 23 Zarantyr, the military situation had begun to stabilize: After months of hard fighting, Operations Nymm and Eyre finally spent their offensive impetuses and ground to a halt short of their marks; Karrnath’s Seventh (Berovian) Army had landed at Terrinport at the western terminus of what had been the Golden Arch Bridge, taking the pressure off of forces on the Thaliost Peninsula and allowing those which had been defeated and scattered to begin to regroup; and Operation Golden Meteor had gotten off to a rousing start by throwing back the Thranes the seven miles they had captured in the previous sixth months of campaigning before Larunor, with the triumphant encirclement of the Larunor Crusade just weeks ahead. But the stabilizing military situation gave voice to in the Estates was a scream of anguish. The horrible fighting of the 960s and 970s between Aundair and Thrane in what had once been part of Galifarian Thrane had produced more than four million dead, wounded, and missing on both sides and more than half of that between 975 and 980. It was felt, and not without good cause, that the nobility of the south had paid more than their fair share of blood and treasure for the Aundairian crown’s international ambitions. The south also found itself conveniently the only place that was not in the grips of an existential crisis: Twenty years of cyclical invasion had given it a political coherence in the face of adversity that the noble delegations from the heartlands north and south of Fairhaven and the overrun Thaliost Peninsula lacked.”

“Where the southern representatives of the Estates were driven by fear for their material and familial safety, the Arcane Congress’s role in engineering the succession crisis was far more deliberate. Since the start of the Last War, two factions within the Congress had vied for the soul of the institution. On one hand were the Internationalists, who sought to preserve the Congress’s mission since its founding by Galifar I: The regulation and advancement of the arcane sciences and their usages for the good of all of Khorvaire. This meant keeping the Congress from getting tied up politics generally, and especially the politics of the Last War. The other side, the Nationalists, saw the Congress as a temporal player little different from the other great land magnates in Aundair: The Congress, after all, was the municipal and county government for Arcanix and its suburbs, the former being a bustling city of one-and-a-half million. (The Arcane Congress was, in its capacity as the sovereign of the Duchy of Arcanix and its subsidiary counties, represented in the Estates-General.) The role of the Congress should not only be to win the war in a way favorable to Aundair, but to get involved in both Aundairian and international politics to promote the clearly superior governmental philosophies of magocracy. At the time of Wrella I’s death, the Nationalists were in ascendency and, more importantly, they had a willing ally in Adal Tyman Bokk ir’Wynarn, Wrella I’s forth-born child hell-bent on acquiring the throne for himself.”

“Between a politically unified south and a self-aggrandizing Arcane Congress, a list of demands was presented to Crown Princess Dimara as prerequisites for the Estates to recognize her ascent to the throne. They amounted to a radical rewriting of the Aundairian constitution: Executive power would be ensconced in a triumvirate of the crown and representatives of the Estates and Arcane Congress, with governmental portfolios and appointments being allotted on a carefully calculated percentage basis; the Congress would be recognized as an independent institution within the governmental framework, the equal of both the crown and Estates; and the Estates would be rechartered as a full-time legislature and given a co-equal role in Aundair’s fiscal management. In-exchange, the Estates would undertake internal reforms to remove the final feudal barriers to conscription and the full resources of the Arcane Congress would be put at the hands of the crown. For added emphasis, the point was made that if the Crown Princess proved unwilling to negotiate, the Estates would recognize the succession of Adal.”

“From the existing sources, it is difficult to ascertain what Crown Princess Dimara intended to do until 19 Olarune: By some accounts, she raged incessantly about the Estates’ temerity and would sooner have had Fairhaven occupied by Thranes than accede to their blackmail; by others, she was willing to take the bitter pill to get back to the more important work of ejecting the Thranes from her kingdom. On 19 Olarune, however, the situation changed dramatically, as Operation Golden Meteor – which had been launched without the crown’s authorization, as a “demonstration” of the alliance which the Arcane Congress and Estates were fronting – reached its zenith with the encirclement of the Larunor Crusade, routing of the remnants of the Southwestern Crusade, and the capture of more than a quarter-million Thrane prisoners. Operation Golden Meteor had produced the greatest Aundairian battlefield victory in a generation, if not the entire war: It would be impossible to resist the demands before Dimara after it. Though it is a credit to the future Aurala I’s political skills that she was not forced to accept all of the Estates’ demands: After several weeks of fierce internal debate with the Arcane Congress and mobilizing of the members of the Estates from Thrane-overrun territory desperate for any kind of counteroffensive, Dimara succeeded in driving the Estates to back down from their demand for the transformation of that body into a permanently convened legislature. In-exchange, Dimara accepted the ‘unity constitution’ and a ‘unity government’ under its power-sharing agreement, as well the recognition of the Arcane Congress’s equality of stature, and was crowned Queen Aurala I on 9 Therendor, 980.”

The Current Crisis and Its State of Play
By: Col. Ihigo Retzen (Home Guard Intelligence), Maj. Boranax ir’Wynarn (King’s Citadel), Urik Tannan, Deputy Director of Intelligence Analysis (Dark Lanterns)
“From the available facts, it appears that the unity government is being dismembered by a well planned and well orchestrated coup d’main. The first phase of the process appears to have begun during the second two weeks of Olarune or the first of Therendor, though we cannot be precisely sure of the exact start date. Several mid-ranking officials in the Chancellories of Arcana, the Interior, and War were arrested on sundry charges of embezzlement, contraband trafficking, misappropriation of state resources, and other sundry crimes. These were followed by a wave of resignations and retirements from various military and civil posts, and followed by an even bigger round of arrests for plausible, if not entirely believable, slights against the state. What has been most striking has been that, in the churning cauldron of arrests, retirements, and resignations is that very few, if any, have been aligned with the ‘royalist’ wing of the Aundairian government and the efficiency with which organizational losses have been made good. To date, six cabinet ministers, twenty-two admirals, ninety-one generals, and one-hundred fifty-five agency heads and deputy cabinet ministers have resigned, retired, or been arrested. We have lost count of the number of those further down the organizational charts who have experienced churn. It can safely be assumed that in order to make these kinds of changes and keep the government from collapsing, that a good deal of preparatory work went into the purge prior to its commencing.

“The second phase of the purge appears to have begun on 28 Eyre. It was on that date that Aarott’s Presidium crashed under extremely mysterious circumstances. This act was credited by the Aundairian crown to a warforged and pair of dragons visiting a prisoner incarcerated aboard Aarott’s Presidium as a diversionary action to allow for the kidnapping of Princess Austasia Dimara Wreyna ir’Wynarn, then on holiday somewhere between Wroat and Hatheril at the behest of Crown Prince Adal. In the wake of the crash, the Crown Prince has been stripped of his title and is about to stand trial for his crimes. Sizable elements of the regular have been mobilized and recent reserve classes recalled in anticipation of this, should it provoke a negative reaction from Adal’s political allies.

“This all seems to be a deception promulgated for domestic consumption: Brelish customs authorities have no record of a royal delegation entering Breland through any of the expected ports of entry, nor is there any record of Princess Austasia’s being in Breland beyond her arrival and departure from Wroat. (A series of articles fed to the Times (of Wroat) chronicling her travels has been debunked as having originated from, and likely been fabricated by, the castellan of an estate on Brokenblade Island.) Furthermore, the Aundairians have made no official attempt to organize a search of the Wroat-Hatheril corridor, instead leaving it to adventurers and mercenaries motivated by the generous cash reward offered for Austasia’s return. While deceptive, the lie has provided a remarkably good excuse with which to depose the Crown Prince, whose show trial is now looming large.”

“The only pieces of evidence available to support the thesis that Adal kidnapped Austasia is the odd circumstances which prevailed in Terminus Station during the first weeks of Therendor. While the details are still sketchy and have been much stonewalled by House Orien, it appears that a squad-level detachment of Knights Phantom were operating within the station, searching for someone of import. House Orien has refused to comment one way or the other, and the only testimony we have is from a handful of witnesses who have been willing to come forward, suggesting a cover-up by either the Aundairians or House Orien. (The witnesses also mention the recurring role of an adventuring party who left a member of the Arcane Congress nude and unconscious on a rail platform, so they are not being treated as entirely credible.) If the Aundairians were searching for Princess Austasia, however, it suggests even more is going on than previously assumed, as that would have had Aundairian special forces in Sharn looking for a missing princess who would not be ‘kidnapped’ for another eight weeks.”

“Far more credible evidence exists that the crashing of Aarott’s Presidium was an event independent of the current political situation. Or, at the very least, that the Aundairian crown is attempting to repurpose it for its own political advantage. The Dark Lantern station-master in Fairhaven has managed to acquire transcripts of some of the interviews with survivors and interrogations of recaptured prisoners. They paint a markedly different picture than what is being spun by Fairhold: They speak of a riot breaking out and, in the commotion, the ‘perpetrators’ of the crime throwing themselves into the melee to protect the guards and/or try to restore order. They also speak of the unloading and detonating of a strange arcane device deep in the bowels of the prison during the riot: This conforms with our own intelligence assets crediting a Banishment bomb as the culprit in the preliminary drafts of the investigative report. They also speak of the riot being instigated, and the Banishment bomb being emplaced, by warforged bearing the emblem of a thirteen-spiked gauntlet: Without the opportunity to further interrogate the witnesses on this subject, it is impossible to say with certainty who or what the gauntlet symbolized. But at first blush, it bears a startlingly resemblance to the descriptions of the insignia of the Lord of Blades, warranting further investigation at the very least.”

“In light of the political advantages and evidence to the contrary, it is the official position of the Brelish intelligence community that Princess Austasia has not been kidnapped and that there is no evidence to indicate that she has been on Brelish soil during this past year. At this juncture, no insight can be provided as to why the Aundairian government continues to advance this theory, beyond that it is politically advantageous to Queen Aurala I if her daughter and heir apparent was kidnapped as an act of political retaliation. We can only offer one closing thesis: If we accept that our first position was incorrect – that Princess Austasia has, contrary to our best knowledge, infiltrated Brelish territory – then there is a possible reconciliation for the oddness at Terminus Station and the rationale of the kidnapping plot. If Austasia were to arrive in Breland at the start of Therendor, that would coincide with the purge beginning to have its bite, and the time when it would make the most sense for the heir apparent and most likely target of potential retaliation to go incommunicado. Whether the presence of Knight Phantoms in Sharn and Austasia’s subsequent appearance in Wroat were plots undertaken by different factions or all the work of the Aundairian crown cannot be speculated upon, but under this scenario it seems obvious that the ruse was coming apart by 28 Eyre, in which the perfect marriage of political opportunities were presented, as a new lies could be fashioned to explain Austasia’s being out of sight and simultaneously blame it on the last bastion of opposition in Fairhaven. But, this remains wholly conjecture, no matter how neatly it ties up certain loose threads.”

The Albatross, Part Two
—Updating Mara on What Was Learned from Khaal: 75xp
—Seeing Neltharion’s Karmic Punishment for Making Vanne Cry: 50xp
—Taking Vanne With You to See Ligriv: 75xp

Brokenblade Island
—Waving at the Warforged Titan, Again: 25xp
—Learning Where All the Airships Went During “A Royal Pain in the…”; 50xp
—Burzam’s Semantic Shenanigans: 100xp, +2 Reputation Points

Casa ir’Clarn
—Refrain From Intrudin’ When the Room Be Boomin’: 50xp
—Barging into Ligriv’s Mansion-Barn: 100xp
—Doing the Barging, And Everything Else, With Panache: 50xp
—Panache Which Also Tastes Good With Syrup: 50xp
—Catching Up With Ligriv and Aurim: 100xp
—Learning of Aurim’s Plans To Open Up the Molten Front: 50xp
—Learning That Ligriv Has An Accusing Parlor: 25xp
—Visiting Ligriv’s Accusing Parlor: 50xp
—Partaking in the Accusing Parlor’s Bubble Pipes and Dramatic Lighting: 75xp
—Entertaining Ligriv’s Theory About Ninja-Goblins: 150xp
—Learning That Ligriv Also Has An Angrydome: 25xp
—What’s Insurance? It’s Like Gambling, Except You Hope to Lose: 25xp
—Coming Up With a Plan To Infiltrate the Theater: 100xp
—Visiting Ligriv’s Angrydome: 75xp
—Vanne’s Playing Kaiju: 75xp

The Albatross, Part Three
—Getting Tuxed Up to Visit the North Bank Theater: 50xp
—Contacting Dr. Flint: 50xp
—Being Briefed on Mara’s Adventures: 75xp
—Making A State Function Of Your Trip to the Theater: 100xp, +10 Reputation Points

The Albatross, Part Four
—Making Sure No One Had Prepared Exploding Runes Today: 50xp
—Receiving A Bill For the Property Damage of Your Adventuring: 50xp
—Being Given A Daishou By People Whose Leader You Just Killed: 25xp

You have braved the worst that the enemy can throw at you, and have a lot of swag for your troubles!

You people keep getting money. Either I’m a great DM, or a terrible one: Included below are all that you have looted from the dead and your own captives, as well as what little bits you manage to scavenge from the hulk of the enemy’s airship.

A more thorough write-up of events is pending, when I can find the motivation to do it. …which means probably not until after the bar.

How is that even when you're sidequesting you're still dinging? And getting absurd amounts of treasure?

Yep, folks, you’re now L8. Fun times!

Sewer Noodling Postscript
You feel a twinge of guilt as the last fleeing merrow is dragged into the central cistern by Ol’ Gobbla: But only a little, as the merrow wasn’t exactly the sort who you’d take to social gatherings. But death-by-devil-croc is just not a good way to go, even for a murderous aquatic ogre. With Ol’ Gobbla contenting himself on one of his former handlers, you are free to cut off the heads of the dead ogres which you’ve just felled. A total of twenty are collected: 10,000gp is not a bad day’s work, despite Pappy Merrow’s axe-work and Mammy Merrow getting the drop on Gwynne.

With their heads secured, you proceed to explore the rest of the impromptu warren they’d managed to construct for themselves in the sewers: Mercifully, there are no more surprises waiting for you, and Ol’ Gobbla seems intent to give you wide berth following your inflicting of pain upon him. Well, you do have one surprise in store for you: The amount of stuff that the merrows have. Piles upon piles of crates, barrels, coffers, chests, and various other loot containers litter the sewer-warren: As with any large amount of loot, some of it looks rather valuable, but some of it also looks rather useless. Burzam, Reine, and Blackfist set about looking for suitable shinies to sate their hunger for shiny things, while Gwynne and Tevi continue deeper into the warren to discover a rather large and ramshackle shack.

Venturing inside, the two discover sufficient accommodations for each and every merrow on the ground floor, as well as yet more barracks-style bedding and private chambers for Mammy and Pappy upstairs. Their search draws them to Mammy’s room, which is rather better kept than the rest of the shack, and is filled with maps and books to boot! Certainly not things you’d expect to find in a merrow’s warren. Upon examining the books, you find that they’re a meticulously kept log of the piracy and salvage operations undertaken by the merrows: That they were sinking ships and then looting them out in the Hilt certainly explains where all of the swag came from. You also discover that the merrows of this sewer-warren had come to lead an impressive alliance of merrows, skrags, and skum to engage in a rather organized bid to control this section of the sewers. All told from the records, you count that this warren had 34 members, of whom you’ve killed or routed 22: The rest are, by the logs, out on patrol or salvage. You also discern the location of the primary skrag colony in the region, plus what seems to be a rather sizable skum settlement in the vicinity.

Stowing away the logs and maps, the party is reunited! And work is done processing loot: The corpses of the dead merrows are stripped and their useful contents placed in your extradimensional spaces, while useful-looking containers are searched and they, or their contents, are lashed onto Blackfist’s back. Having a Large-sized warforged to play pack mule is incredibly nice, isn’t it? All told a dozen chests, crates, and other containers are lashed to him and, to top it all off, he is also yoked to a large slab of aquasteel which Burzam insists upon bringing with you, if only to produce more awesome weapons of the sort the Sewerhome have. With Blackfist properly burdened, you at last can start making your way back to the surface! The going is slow, given Blackfist’s carrying and dragging Host only knows how much weight, but you take it nice and easy, making it back topside with no major interruptions.

Dropping off your loot at Magical Mayhem for identification, you proceed over to the Bureau of Sanitation to collect your bounty. The bureaucrats running the place are flabbergasted by the number of merrow heads you present: They hadn’t paid out twenty bounties in the past five months. They gleefully give you your money and express their thanks: They become a bit more circumspect when they are informed that the merrow are engaged in piracy, but will pass the news along to the Port Authority and City Watch.

Money in hand and a job well done, you retire for the day. Ah, the life of an adventurer…

Big Game Hunter: Fluffiwuffikens
You triumphantly inspect your prize: An owlbear that has flapped itself into exhaustion, and careened into a statue in the Upper Dura’s Highhold district. Fanfare trumpets as you work on disentangling the great beast from the stone dwarf it came to rest upon, while Kingu hovers down and joins you, getting more than a few squeezes from his new squeeze. He’s earned it, what with goring Oerz and dropping a tree onto an unsuspecting wyvern. And also dropping said tree onto whatever unfortunate souls might be in the ward beneath you. Probably should’ve thought that one through a bit more, Your Majesty.

Your revelry is ended as those who had been pursuing the pursuers arrive: Aerial troops from the Daggerwatch district, who joined the chase after it veered through the heart of the Brelish military’s presence in the city. A steady stream of flying cavalry, mounted upon warforged raptors and magebred flyers, circle above and assess the situation. They’re joined quickly thereafter by literal boatloads of red-cloaked troops, as several airships arrive upon the scene and disgorge their human cargo. With a company’s worth forces pouring into the area, the owlbear – and you – are rather quickly secured. Deciding that you are somewhat overmatched, you peaceably go with the nice men with the heavy repeating crossbows and readied wands.

After being escorted back to Daggerwatch, you are dressed down by the commander of the city’s garrison: You know you’ve made it when your intelligence is being insulted by the highest-ranking military man in the city! The riot act you are read includes violation of a dozen sky traffic ordinances, failure to heed multiple guidance orders from Sharn Air Traffic Control, violation of restricted military airspace, and several citations of property damage. You cannot help but take some solace that the jamming of Northeast Control isn’t laid upon your head, but you keep mum about it, lest you get blamed for it anyway. Your upbraiding is concluded with banishment to the stockade, where the general intends to keep you until the wheels of justice can, in due time, crush you. You stay the night therein: All-in-all, it’s not too bad, all things considered. Certainly better than having to pitch camp in somewhere like the X-742 Drainage Cluster.

Your lifetime internment in the stockades is interrupted when, in the morning, a grinning Boranax greets you with the good news: You’re free! The King’s Citadel looks after its own, after all. And that if you ever try something as stupid as a high-speed chase across the Upper Wards again, he’ll personally make sure you stay locked up. He also points out that the fines and penalties leveled against the party, totaling some 20,000gp, are your problem and not his. But that can be dealt with later: Sprung from prison, you collect your shackled owlbear and return to Crystal Bridge! Presenting it, Lady ir’Yalan is overjoyed to have cute widdle Fluffwuffikens back! (For his part, Fluffiwuffikens becomes something of an overaffectionate lapdog when united with his elderly mistress.) So overjoyed that she’s willing to pay off the copious bills you incurred finding her pet! And declaring an open door policy for the rescuers of her baby. (Fluffiwuffkens doesn’t seem particularly enamored with you ever returning. Can’t blame him for that, either.)

And so, if delayed a bit by your night in the clink, you collect your 10,000gp bounty! And the worst part about it all? Vanne wants to know when you can do it again.

Art & Mundane Objects
Barrel of Riedran spices, with “PROPERTY OF TEZDARBROS. TRADING CO.” emblazoned upon it in Dal Quor [x2]
Battle-scarred aquasteel apparatus of the crab bearing the faded markings over the Imperial Galifarian Navy
Crate of exquisitely soft furs bearing the worn insignia of House Vadalis [x3]
Crude statuette of a dragon hewn from a sea cat femur
Logbooks of Mammy Merrow, detailing the pirating operations of the merrow kinfolk
Map of the Hilt’s sea floor, indicating several points of interest
Map of the sewers, showing several points of interest near the X-742 Drainage Cluster
Ornate shimmersteel cavalry saber with bejeweled hilt and sheath
Royal wardrobe, circa 893 A.K., of Princess-Consort Casopi ir’Wynarn, last Archduchess of Sharn
Set of three matching extradimensional steamer trunks bearing the heraldry of the Prince of the Hilt
Well-preserved and life-like marble bust of “Mad” King Galifar XII
Well-preserved soarwood figurehead shaped like a comely mermaid

Cash, Coins, and Gems
270pp in Galifarian and Brelish mintage
6,526gp in Galifarian, Brelish, Cyran, and Aundairian mintage
14,336sp in Brelish and Cyran mintage
10,000gp letter-of-credit from the City of Sharn
10,000gp letter-of-credit from Teydren ir’Yalan
Fist-sized uncut diamond of a distinctly pink hue
Assorted other gems estimated at ~3,000gp in value